Nelvana and Sony Pictures Animation check in together on Hotel Transylvania Animated TV Series

(July 14, 2015 – Toronto, Canada) Corus Entertainment’s Nelvana, one of the world’s leading international producers and distributors of children’s animated content, today announced that it is developing an exciting new animated TV series based on the blockbuster feature film, Hotel Transylvania from Sony Pictures Animation.

Nelvana and Sony Pictures Animation will partner to bring the hit feature film to the small screen. Focusing on the teenage years of Dracula’s daughter Mavis and her friends in brand new adventures, the animated monster comedy television series will be developed and produced by Nelvana Studio in Toronto and is slated to launch on air in early 2017.

"We’re excited to be entering into a new relationship with Sony Pictures Animation to extend the world of Hotel Transylvania into a new TV series,” said Colin Bohm, Vice President, Head of Corus Kids. “The hilarious characters and clever premise of Hotel Transylvania set the stage for endless story possibilities."

Kristine Belson, President of Sony Pictures Animation commented: "Audiences have embraced the world and characters of Hotel Transylvania, so we are thrilled to be partnering with Nelvana to take them on new adventures, expanding on the teenage years of Mavis and her friends at the world-famous monster five star resort!"

Rick Mischel, executive producer at Sony Pictures Animation added, "Corus Entertainment’s Nelvana is a perfect creative partner and we look forward to sharing more Hotel Transylvania monster laughs with fans of all ages."

The theatrical release of Hotel Transylvania, which premiered in Fall 2012, set a record as the highest-grossing September opening ever at the U.S. box office. The film introduced Hotel Transylvania, Dracula’s lavish five-stake resort, where monsters and their families can live it up, free to be the monsters they are without humans to bother them. On one special weekend, Dracula has invited some of the world’s most famous monsters — Frankenstein and his wife, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, a family of werewolves, and more — to celebrate his beloved daughter Mavis’ 118th birthday. For Drac, catering to all of these legendary monsters is no problem, but his world could come crashing down when a human stumbles on the hotel for the first time and takes a shine to Mavis.

Drac’s pack is back this Fall for an all-new monster comedy adventure in Hotel Transylvania 2, the theatrical sequel to Sony Pictures Animation’s comedy hit, scheduled to be released in North America on September 25, 2015. Everything seems to be changing for the better at Hotel Transylvania. Dracula’s rigid monster-only hotel policy has finally relaxed, opening up its doors to human guests. But behind closed coffins, Drac is worried that his adorable half-human, half-vampire grandson, Dennis, isn’t showing signs of being a vampire. So while Mavis is busy visiting her human in-laws with Johnny – and in for a major cultural shock of her own – "Vampa" Drac enlists his friends Frank, Murray, Wayne and Griffin to put Dennis through a “monster-in-training” boot camp. But little do they know that Drac’s grumpy and very old, old, old school dad Vlad is about to pay a family visit to the hotel. And when Vlad finds out that his great-grandson is not a pure blood – and humans are now welcome at Hotel Transylvania – things are going to get batty!

Distribution for the Hotel Transylvania TV series will be handled by Sony Pictures Television in the U.S., while Nelvana Enterprises will distribute the series outside of the U.S. Sony Pictures Animation reserves global licenses for toys, games and publishing. For all other categories, Sony Pictures Animation reserves U.S. rights and Corus will hold international rights. Executive producing the series are Rick Mischel from Sony Pictures Animation and Colin Bohm and Irene Weibel from Nelvana.

About NelvanaNelvana is a world-leading international producer and distributor of children’s animated and live-action content. Nelvana produces a stable of award-winning and globally renowned brands that focus on comedies, preschool and boys action series and ancillary consumer products programs. Nelvana’s content airs on Corus Entertainment’s kids channels in Canada and in over 160 countries around the world. The Nelvana library has well over 4,000 episodes of programming and has received over 70 major international program awards including Emmys® and Geminis. Visit the Nelvana website at nelvana.com.

About Sony Pictures AnimationSony Pictures Animation produces a variety of animated and family entertainment for audiences around the world. The studio is following its worldwide comedy hits—the 2012 monster hit comedy Hotel Transylvania, the hybrid live action/animated blockbusters The Smurfs and The Smurfs 2, and the mouth-watering Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs movies—with the family comedies Hotel Transylvania 2 scheduled in September 2015 and the fully animated reboot Get Smurfy in March 2017. The studio, in conjunction with Aardman Animations, has produced two critically acclaimed feature films: the CG-animated family comedy Arthur Christmas; and the Academy Award® nominated stop-frame animated high-seas adventure, The Pirates! Band of Misfits. In 2007, Surf's Up also received an Academy Award® nomination for Best Animated Feature Film. The division, whose first feature film Open Season led to a very successful movie franchise including the upcoming Open Season: Scared Silly in Spring 2016, turned 10 in 2012. Sony Pictures Animation is a division of the Sony Pictures Motion Pictures Group.